Candelight Carol
by CeeCee333
Summary: Christmas one shot about a Rossi/Strauss Christmas. It includes the team as well. Written for 2013 Criminal Minds Christmas Fic Gift Exchange for Pandorabox82


My song is "Candlelight Carol".

My Christmas-y prompts are a special ornament, caroling, a string of Christmas cards

Chosen Pairing "Rossi/Strauss"

This for the Criminal Minds Christmas Fic Gift Exchange

This is for Pandorabox82. I hope you like it.

Penelope adjusted her short, red, velvet skirt with white trim as she helped Blake add more garland around the Christmas tree that was prominently displayed in the middle of the BAU.

JJ moved her elf hat out of her eyes as she placed the string of homemade Christmas cards from all the BAU children along the regulation windows. She strung them by their age. First was Jack Hotchner's card. He'd taken a white piece of construction paper, written his holiday wishes and then proceeded to color black pentagons all over causing the card to look like a flat soccer ball. Next was Henry's card. He had made it at school. The little boy decorated his card and placed the logo of his daddy's beloved New Orleans Saints on the front.

JJ stepped off her ladder to grab the last two cards. One was from James David Garcia-Morgan, who was, at the ripe old age of 4, just like his father. James used the standard Christmas greeting on the inside of the card but once folded the outside prominently showed the F.B.I logo. Then there was little Reagan Jennifer Garcia-Morgan's card. JJ smiled while she hung it. JJ knew the one year old couldn't write but found it adorable that she scribbled unintelligible lettering inside the card.

Once that was done, JJ stepped down and away from the ladder. She looked at the work she, Penelope, and Blake did to the BAU and was impressed.

She looked up even further to see a wreath hanging from Strauss' door. For years Penelope had tried to make the woman's office festive and every year Strauss would spout F.B.I rules and take whatever decoration was hung up down.

JJ shrugged, wondering what about this year had changed. She was broken out of her thoughts as she heard Derek and Will grunting, carrying heavy DJ equipment to the center of the room. She cocked a well groomed eyebrow in question.

Once the expensive hardware was set down, Derek looked at JJ and said, "Apparently Anderson is a master on the ones and twos."

Penelope giggled and said, "Well good. It's better than the crap they blare on the AP system."

Derek chuckled and said, "I hope so. I have a very sexy Mrs. Claus to dance with, and I can't do that to 'Jingle Bells'."

Penelope playfully wiggled against Derek as Blake and JJ rolled their eyes. Will wiped his forehead as he drawled, "When's this party suppose to start?"

JJ looked at her watch and replied, "Honey, in a few hours. We have to cross our T's and dot all of our I's on our paperwork before we can have any fun."

Will slid his badge off of his neck and said, "Well since I have the day off, I'll run to the liquor store and make my special holiday punch."

Decked barked out a laugh and said, "The last time me and P had that punch, we ended up with Reagan."

Will smiled and said, "You're welcome."

Derek nodded and said, "I'm all done here, so I'll ride with. Baby, you need anything?"

Penelope shook her head no. She bestowed Derek with a quick kiss and watched as Derek and Will headed out.

Blake looked up towards Strauss' office and said, "I wish she would come down."

JJ sighed and rhetorically asked, "With the year she's had, do you blame her for being a little sad?"

Penelope frowned and said, "We need to support her. For God's sake, she was drugged and almost killed by the an Unsub."

JJ with conviction in her voice said, "It's time for her to really see we are a family, and that family includes her."

Both Penelope and Alex nodded.

Penelope adjusted the adorable velvet Santa hat on her head and said, "This Mrs. Claus is going to grant many Christmas wishes including getting Mrs. Scrooge herself to spend time with us."

Blake slowly said, "PGM, I don't know about that. She is an uber private person."

Penelope beamed and asked, "Firstly, Alex, you can't believe that completely? Secondly, I am starting to rub off on you." Garcia cocked an eyebrow and giggled the word "uber."

Penelope glanced towards Strauss' office to see her door closed. She sighed a little but was pleased to see she hadn't taken down the wreath Garcia spent extra time hanging on the wooden door.

Inside of Erin's office she was sitting with her feet propped up on her desk. She had kicked off her shoes hours ago. She tilted her head back in her leather office chair as she quietly listened to Christmas carols.

The faints sounds of, "Candlelight Carol" sung by the Mormon Tabernacle choir was relaxing as she mulled a few things over.

Erin Strauss was an intensely private person. She knew this Christmas party was coming up, and she was afraid to go. The people she tried to sabotage damn near died trying to save her.

This Christmas was so hard. Her kids knew she had changed a lot of her habits and worked hard on her addiction, but they were still very wary of her. She thought about buying their love and affection, but in the long run that wasn't what she wanted.

Her ex-husband was a bastard who was jealous of her status within the FBI. He used her job to gain custody of their children. He'd even had the nerve to ask for spousal support. It wasn't like he didn't have a damn good job, and it was because of her that he'd gotten it in the first place.

But oddly enough she was the one to file for divorce.

When the asshole had cheated, leaving her cold and alone most nights she never said a fucking word, but once she had let David Rossi into her bed, and eventually into her heart her outlook on life was much better.

Plus the team she once tried to disband came through for her in the last few years. If you had told Erin Strauss that Aaron Hotchner, and Derek Morgan would be the two that helped her stop drinking, she would have laughed in your face. Now here it was a solid year of sobriety and she really owed a lot to them.

She sighed once she realized that the ice queen she used to be was no more.

And now she herself could admit she gave a damn about them too. She had a man in her life that was just as tough as she was, and he wouldn't put up with her shit, and frankly for Christmas and the rest of her life, that is what she needed.

She picked up her office phone and dialed Rossi's extension. She let the phone ring until she heard his standard F.B.I answering machine message. She returned the phone too it's cradle and bitterly thought, "That jackass better not have bailed."

Her back was getting stiff and the carols were starting to lull her to sleep, so she decided to escape the confines of her office for a few minutes.

She tried calling Dave one more time but still there was no answer. She shrugged it off. She took her feet off of her her desk and slid into her sensible heels. She shook her head thinking about the crazy shoes Garcia wore.

Next she stood up sliding on her jacket. She jotted down a quick note just in case Rossi decided to come into her office.

She walked out of her office and smiled a little. She was impressed with the transformation the BAU you took on. Not one corner was left undecorated. From the garland wrapped around the railing of the stairs, to the tiny reindeer that sat on Spencer's desk.

Erin made her way down the stairs and said, "Good afternoon everyone."

Blake nodded and said, "Ma'am."

JJ saw Strauss and immediately took off her silly elf hat. "Nice to see you ma'am."

Erin returned the greeting, "Same to you agent Jareau. By any chance have either of you seen Rossi?"

Spencer looked up from his desk and said, "Ma'am earlier he said he had some errands to run before the party."

Their Section chief nodded and tossed a thank you over her shoulder.

Erin thought to herself, "Where the hell is my meddlesome boyfriend?"

She shook her head at herself. Wasn't she too old to have boyfriends? One failed marriage and 3 children ago, she would have said yes. Now she didn't think too much about it. She had David Rossi in her world and whatever label or title she wanted to put on it she would.

David Rossi was now climbing into the standard issue Suburban to make sure, by the end of the day, Erin Strauss knew how damned important in his life she was.

One thing you could never say about David Rossi was that he didn't know how to romance the skirt, or in this case sensible pants suit off a woman.

He had snuck out of the BAU earlier that day to surprise Erin. He called in several favors. If anyone deserved a little romance in their life, it was his lady love.

They'd all had a pretty tough year, and with the way the FBI worked and how all the agents were subject to danger, Strauss was bound to be in danger at some point in time.

Where was Reid when you needed the math done?

Rossi got out of his car and headed into the floral shop. He chose a very Christmas-y bouquet of flowers and set to have them delivered a little later on.

Then he made his way over to the Catholic church near the FBI headquarters. He made a donation, and said a quick prayer.

He once again made his way to his car and headed back to the FBI headquarters.

Rossi walked out of the elevators and was surprised by the little amount of activity going on.. There were agents slowly penning their names to old case files to get them turned in before the end of the year.

He could see Morgan picking Reid's brain about certain cases so he could the minor details written, Reid silently accepted a few of Derek's files to help him out.

Rossi looked around again, he thought about going up into his own office, but instead decided to pop-a-squat next to Reid. He took a few files from Morgan and said, "Come on. Let's get this done."

Morgan looked up from his case file and asked, "Excited about Christmas, are we?"

Rossi feigned boredom and said, "Maybe."

Reid looked at Rossi for a moment. He saw the older profiler twitch, but Reid internally shrugged and thought, _Whatever it is best not to know._

Spencer returned to the bullpen. It didn't go unnoticed by his colleagues that he seemed a little embarrassed, but no one pushed it**. **

Hotch had decided it would be most efficient to sit in the bullpen as well, instead of having to keep calling each agent in his office to ask about certain profiles.

Eventually even Penelope gave up. She routed all of the paperwork that needed to be printed off to Anderson's printer. He would quickly bring it over.

Finally JJ and Blake made their way into the bullpen after Alex helped JJ with a quick phone consultation. When it was decided that TEAM B would take it, the ladies joined in the effort to get months and months worth of paperwork done.

Rossi for a moment looked at the case file as though it were a snake.

He tried to open it, but his hands shook. Hotch saw his friend and saw the _**Confidential**_ scrawled across the front in bold lettering.

Hotch silently took the file and softly said, "It's the last one we have left to do."

Rossi slid his chair back and decided a cup of coffee was in order.

He walked into the break room and saw Erin frowning at the coffee maker.

"David, this coffee is atrocious."

David chuckled and said, "Well if a certain boss women would approve our budget raise, we could have better coffee."

David and Erin silently prepared their coffee each grimacing before either adding more sugar, or sweetener.

Finally, they both seemed content. David held the chair out for her. They sat in comfortable silence, like they tended to do in the morning after sipping their first cup of the day.

Erin put her cup down keeping her fingers wrapped around the warm mug

"David I was thinking, what if I didn't go the Christmas party? Would you be upset?"

David placed a soft hand on Erin's wrist and said, "Erin, you owe it to yourself to go. Trust me."

"But the drinking..."

With an understanding tone, he answered, "Only Morgan and Hotch know. I have my suspicions Garcia knows, but she is too damn nosey for her own good. No one else in the bureau knows."

"Fine, but they are all going to notice when I don't drink."

"No they won't. Will's making this Mardi Gras christmas punch thing. Everyone else will be so plastered they won't notice at all what we do."

"What do you mean what we do?"

Rossi smirked and said, "You heard me. When's the last time we had a little fun here?"

Strauss chuckled and said, "Hmm, probably twenty years ago."

"Twenty years too long."

Spencer poked his head into the break room. He blushed a little. He didn't hear the conversation the two were having but whatever it was, was dirty enough to cause them both to blush. Strauss blushed more than Rossi as his tan skin hid his emotions better.

"Hey Ross,i I just wanted to let you know that we are all done with the files. Morgan and JJ have some other stuff to do. The rest of us are starting the party."

Rossi nodded and said, "Alright kid, we'll see you in a few."

Reid shrugged and left willing himself not to blush at the closeness of the pair.

Strauss glared and Rossi and said, "This is why we stopped doing those things here."

"If I recall, _you_ stopped. I was just fine."

Erin whispered, "Not here."

While Hotch, Morgan and JJ were taking care of a few things in their offices Anderson and Reid had already started drinking

Reid drunkenly looked at Anderson and said, "You know. I never got to go caroling when I was little."

Anderson wobbled and said, "That's not a bad thing, my mom would make me go every year in a butt ugly sweater my aunt Ida knitted. Hell I'm 34 and she still makes me go now."

Reid swayed and said, "You're lucky."

Anderson placed his drink down and said, "Come on."

They started at Garcia's office. They noticed the door was locked. Reid yelled, "Morgan open the door we know you're in there. After hearing some shuffling followed by laughter and the sound of a zipper being pulled up, Morgan snatched the door open and asked gruffly, "What?"

Anderson took a deep breath and sang, "We wish you a Merry Christmas, we wish you a merry-"

Anderson nudge Reid who began to sing with him.

Morgan stared at the two of them. "What the hell are you two doing?"

Ried bounced on his toes and said, "Caroling."

Penelope walked from behind Derek and smiled brightly, "Okay you two finish your song."

The two finished the song and promptly Morgan slammed the door in their faces.

Reid mumbled, "That's the last time we sing them a song."

"We should maybe wait til they're done doing it."

Anderson looked at Reid and asked, "Who's next?"

Reid looked towards the other technical analysts cubicles.

Reid pointed and said, "There."

The drunkenly sand, "O Holy Night.", leaving a confused Kevin Lynch in the process.

Next they stopped by Hotch's office and sang, "Jingle Bells Batman Smells," Leaving Beth in a fit of giggles and Hotch had a look of n_ever do that again_ etched on his face.

_One Hour Later_

Strauss was standing next to the champagne table. For a moment her hands twitched with the need to let the dry liquid slide down her throat, but after a redirection, and a reassuring hand that belong to David on her lower back, she was easily drawn into a conversation.

Rossi whispered in her ear, "Sweetheart the director's killing our party."

Erin smiled and said, "I can handle that."

She purposefully strode towards the director. She narrowed her eyes on him. He shifted uncomfortably on his feet.

Hotch, Morgan, and Reid excused themselves.

"So Director Martin about these budget cuts."

Ten minutes later the director was gone was hauling ass out of the FBI building.

Anderson had taken his place behind the deejay booth. He'd quickly change the music from slow to something more up tempo.

Everyone seemed to be having a great time. Strauss was laughing a few good natured jokes told by a few of their colleagues.

Rossi saw his chance. Gently grabbing Erin by the elbow he said, "Erin I would like to give you your Christmas gift now."

"But David Christmas isn't for another five days."

"Trust me you'll love it."

"Dave if you are trying to get me in my office for you know what you can forget about it."

"Hey, hey now, as nice as an idea of that is, I do have an actual gift for you, and if you want to change your mind about a little office nookie after seeing it, I certainly wouldn't be opposed."

Strauss sighed but followed him to her office. She quickly glanced around to make sure no one was paying attention.

"Stop worrying you're fine. I seriously doubt Spencer knows his own name right now."

erin opened her office door a flipped the light switch.

"Now Dave what was so important it couldn't wait."

David pulled at a box from his jacket.

"Go ahead open it."

Erin eyed the box for a moment it was wrapped with care. she almost hated to rip the blue wrapping paper off.

She opened the box to see a red ornament covered in white snowflakes with the date of _12-20-2013_.

"David what is this?"

"Its the date that I asked you to be my wife."

Erin's eyes went wide as David took the ornament from her hand, twisted open to pull out a brilliant diamond ring."

David went to get down on one knee but Strauss stopped him. "No need. My answer is yes."

"Good because the next part would have been awkward."

Strauss three children and Father Jimmy came into her office.

"I promise when we get more time, you can have any wedding you want."

"But how?"

Erin's oldest spoke up and said, "Mom after talking to Dave he told us how well you were doing. And well we kind of felt bad about how we treated you."

Erin's youngest said, "Yeah mom, so when he called us and asked permission to marry you. We told him we wanted to be there."

Erin felt tears pool in her eyes.

Father Jimmy said, "Shall we?"

Garcia walked into the room and said, "Not without this."

Dave looked over Erin's shoulder and asked, "How'd you get this so fast."

"David what is my job?"

"To know everything."

"Exactly. As soon as you two sign this your marriage will be 100% legal. Plus you need a witness. So get on with it."

Strauss looked at David and asked, "Do you think the team will be mad we didn't invite them."

Penelope said, "Don't worry about it ma'am they're all too drunk to notice."

Erin raised an eyebrow and asked, "And you?"

"Pregnant."

"Oh."

In just 15 minutes David Rossi was married to Erin Strauss, who after another five minute argument about the changing of names which Strauss told David he was more than welcomed to change his, Erin hugged her kids and made plans for dinner which included father Jimmy and Penelope if she'd like. Everyone left the office just leaving the new engaged pair.

Dave held out his arms and promptly Strauss snuggled into them.

"You know Dave, that little suggestion you made earlier."

"Hmm?"

"You're right twenty to years is a really long time."

Rossi growled, "Hell yeah."

Erin and David were kissing suddenly the door burst open and Anderson and Spencer started to sing "Deck the Halls".

They were both shocked into silence. Rossi had their section chief pinned to her desk.

Spencer mumbled an apology and the two men ran out of the room.

Rossi started to laugh.

He chuckled, "Merry Christmas."

"Dave."

"What?"

"Shut up."

_**I hoped you liked it sorry its a few minutes late, I'm suffering from severe writers block.**_


End file.
